Digital Shutters

Let us all pray:
Hear us Lord, and graciously send your holy angel from Heaven to watch over, protect and defend, all the families and loved ones of the victims from the Virginia Tech massacre.
May they find peace in knowing their loved ones are now in the comfort of your embrace.

Lauren McCain attended Gregory-Portland Intermediate School from 1997 to 1999 and Gregory-Portland Junior High School from 1999 to 2001.

She was loved by all in our community. Although I did not personally know this young lady, The ones who did have fond memories. Please read her story in our local newspaper “The Caller Times“. You’ll have to register its free. You can also read her tribute from CNN.

Although I was not silence, I believe her parents would appriciate this more.

The official press releases for the top 4 popular camera companies don’t boast of any new digital cameras coming on the market.
The newest camera releases out on the market are
• Fuji - The F31fd an upgrade from the F30 released last year. No major changes expect for the face detection feature and the photo processor. ( I am sure you have seen the commercial with the horses behind!)

• Panasonic’s first digital SLR, the DMC-L1. and shares many of its optical subsystem (lens mount, mirror box, viewfinder, auto focus and exposure sensors) with the Olympus E-330. As a big fan of Olympus, this might be worth my checking out if it weren’t for the 7.5 MP
•
Other news worthy items according to my favorite review site Digital Photography Review these are the latest information!

• Canon on 4-17 announced it made available updated firmware for its EOS Digital Rebel XTi / EOS 400D digital SLR.
• On 4-16 Sony and Sandisk announced the SxS memory card for the “PROFESSIONAL� video recorder.
• Sigma released on 4-13 the V.1.01 firmware for its newly launched SD14 digital SLR.
• Pentax and Hoya scrapped their deal on 4-10

Aperture; with adjustable lens, this is the opening that controls the amount of light entering the camera. Aperture is measured in what is called f/stops. A large Aperture will actually give you a shorter depth range thus producing a picture with a blurry background. You would use this if you are taking close ups of an object and do not want the background to be in focus. The smaller the Aperture the greater the depth of range. This is the settings you want when taking landscapes. It will give you a sharper image.
F/stop; is a setting on your camera you adjust to get the Aperture you want. What needs to be remembered is to open the Aperture you need to decrease your f/stop. And if you want to close your Aperture you need a bigger f/stop.
Exposure; this is the amount of light light used to capture a photo. The exposure is actually determined by how long the shutter remains open and the amount of light that passes through the Aperture. If there is too much light the photo may appear washed out. As you can see by the photos with correct exposure and aperture your photo will come out clear and sharp.

Have you seen those cards with the funny animals and their eyes are all big. Well here is a twist, if one of your friends of family is having a birthday take one of the photos you have of them and edit! I made this one for my daughter’s birthday from a photo she took when she was just goofing off with the camera. I’ll bet she wished she erased it when I got through with it!
• First open your Photoshop program and find the photo you want to edit.
• Crop the image to center the object you want to edit
• Set your select tool to elliptical
• I then selected her whole head
• Select the filter tab and scroll down to distort.
• There are several tools in the distort section and depending on the effect you want determines the tool you should select.
• I chose spherize then normal. This made her eyes and nose bigger while making her mouth smaller.
• Next I selected individual areas like her eyes and used the pinch tool and did a negative to bring the areas larger instead of pinching them together.
Once you get the effect you want save your photo and open your favorite card making program.

Some other sources and tricks for Photoshop.
Elated.com
About.com

I am sure that you’ve seen the ads about making money with your digital camera on the internet. Take photos upload them to the stock photo sites and sit back and reap the rewards. But buyers beware! Although it is a good way to make some extra income, it’s probably not going to pay the bills.
Each stock photo site has set up different guidelines as to what they will accept and the minimum size a photo can be. I have been taking photos for stock sites as long as they have been around and my upload approval rating at its best just over 50%. Some sites will take my floras and some won’t. I can submit a photo to one site and it will be disapproved but accepted at another. But don’t get discouraged! You can make money at it!
Here are some tips to follow. Check out each stock photo site and read the submission guidelines and payouts, before you sign up with them. Most will pay you $1.00 for every time your photo is downloaded. Check out the size of the photo. Most won’t let you upload with a file size of less than 4 MP. Your photos need to be sharp and at least 72 dpi (this is no big deal since 72dpi is the standard) It is best and you’ll get approved faster if you can get 300dpi. The biggest sellers are people in action. IF you want to go this route then you will need a model release if your person is recognizable. All stock photo sites have their own model release form so if you are going to submit to several sites then have your model sign one for every site. If you have multiple people each one has to sign the release. ALSO this is a biggy, you cannot have any trademarked images in your photo. For example, a Coca Cola can. Your photo will not be accepted.
There is a lot of sites available but if you do a search for stock photo sites these are your top 5

BIGSTOCK PHOTO pays $0.50 to $1.00 per image depending on the size. I’ve gotten $1.00 for my 3D graphics. You can request payment through PayPal when your account reaches $30.00. They are currently looking for cooking shots, people eating, food prep, you know along that line.
FOTOLIA is based on 50% or more depending on the licensing you pick. IF you go exclusive where you don’t submit that photo to another site you’ll get more. They don’t list what they need. But right now don’t submit photos of flowers they have to many of them. They are not accepting photos smaller than 5MG
SHUTTERSTOCK Pays $0.25 per download, but this is subscription based which encourages the downloader to download more images which is better for you. Their guidelines are a lot stricture than the other sites. As you have to up 10 photos the first time around and they all have to be accepted. If not you have to wait for another month before you can upload more photos. But they are worth it!
ISTOCK PHOTO pays by check or PayPal but you need $100 in your account before you can request payment. They pay 20% commission and 40% for exclusivity.

What pictures do you like to take?
As a Freelance Real Estate Photographer for over 10 years and a Freelance stock Photographer, I have taken pictures of just about everything. My favorite is of animals.
The little buggers just don’t understand when to sit still. Some of my favorite places’ to go is the Natural Bridge Wild Life Park outside of San Antonio, TX. The lemurs are very comical and being used to visitors will definitely pose for you.

But back what kind of pictures…… These are a lot of different types of photography, most people think of the paparazzi that snap off celeb shots, the portrait studio down the street or even that wedding photographer. While there is big bucks in those types of photography there are several other types that don’t get the notoriety that they do.
There’s the stock photographer, product photographer, landscape photographer, real estate photographer.
One of the most famous photographers of our days was Ansel Adams A landscape Photographer,
Specializing in Black and white Photography, some of his most famous pieces were of the National Parks. (More on him another day)

A stock photographer just takes photos and builds a stockpile of pictures for sale; thus the term stock. With the internet you will run across many stock photo sites. Where the photographer creates an account, and then uploads his / her photos for people to download. The buyer creates an account downloads photos and pays for them. The Site then gives the photographer a commission from the sale of his photos. (More on how to do this later this week)

In the world of Digital Photography there are really 2 types of cameras, the compact digital and the Digital SLR. S-o-o-o-o which one do you want?
The PROS of the compact camera:
• They are compact
• A lot of auto features
• Easy to use
• Very affordable
The PROS of a DSLR:
• The picture quality is better
• There is less noise in Photograph
• The speed of taking the shot is faster
• You have more creative control (that’s the main one for me!)
•
A good article on Photography Review goes into detail on the benefits of a DSLR but as they state, if the camera doesn’t fit your life style it will sit in the closet and a DSLR can be very expensive. Think about what you are going to use it for before you buy it. In this article in particular, which is what caught my eye in the first place, the last page compares manufactures instead of cameras, telling the strong points of each and listing them alphabetically instead of by personal favorite. Definetly worth the read!

Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund

April 16, 2007, will be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of the Virginia Tech community and the world beyond.

To remember and honor the victims of those tragic events, the university has established the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund to aid in the healing process and generate financial support.

The fund will be used to cover expenses including but not limited to:

• Grief counseling
• Memorials
• Communication expenses
• Comfort expenses
• Incidental needs

If you plan to give, please click the link below:

I have been getting a lot of comments on the use of Elements verses Photoshop Full version. While many of my readers prefer the full version of Photoshop as I do, I find it a bit pricy. As we all know in the world of digital it’s the final image that counts. There is a lot of software available to get creative with. While all have good and bad points the most popular is the Adobe line.

Adobe is know for bundling chopped up versions of their software with or previously released version when you buy, printer, Cameras, and even new computers, hoping that you will upgrade to the latest and greatest. When I bought my new camera it came with Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 the newest version now is Photoshop Elements 5.0. To me Elements is the same as the old Photoshop 5.0 with just a few twists. It is reasonably priced. I tried the creative part and tried to make some scrapbook pages but it was limited. Although I could put 4 photos per page I could not arrange them how I wanted.

Photoshop Elements 5.0 runs $ 99.00 for the full version
Premier Elements 3.0 runs the same price
But they combined the both for $149.00

The Photoshop itself, PhotoshopCS3 has new smart filters, and text editing features, and claims to run faster. Although I have yet to upgrade to this version since I upgraded to the last version, I have found that Adobe usually lives up to its word.
This full version of the software itself runs about $649.

To make your city come alive you will need a tripod and an overpass. It is important to use the tripod to get the cool effects of the moving lights. Any movement on your part will cause the light to be blurry and bumpy and you will not get a clear background shot. If you are in an area that is to dark the camera will not be able to pick up enough light to release the shutter. On the other hand if you are in an area to well lite the delay in the shutter will not be long enough and it will stop the movement too quickly.
• Set you camera for night shooting,

• Find a safe overpass where you will be out of traffic and not in danger of being hit by a car. Where I live we have several “Catwalk sidewalks� over some of the major roads this is where I took my shots.
• The effect is best if you have a curve in the road this gives a longer range that the moving cars will be in view.

• Set up your tripod where you are looking down at the middle of the road.
• Now start taking pictures. After a few pictures review what you have taken. If this is not the effect you are going for Move your camera to another area. I went to about 5 different location in one night to get my shots.

For some free photography tips on this check out School of Photography .